Microsoft remedies Office 2000 glitches

While the 500,000 customers who have downloaded Microsoft's Office 2000 Service Release 1 report few problems so far, a few bugs have surfaced.

For example, users running Office 2000 on Windows NT Workstation 4.0 shouldn't install the SR-1 update because the hyperlink and search functions in the Internet Explorer browser won't work properly, company officials said.

To remedy this, Microsoft earlier this month posted a Registry Repair Utility on its Office Update Web site. The utility will be incorporated into SR-1 this week.

Customers having difficulty downloading the 29MB SR-1 file from the Office Update Web site are encouraged to install it via CD or through an Administrative Update from a central server.

"The size of the service release is not much larger than the service release for Office 97," said Lisa Gurry, an Office product manager at Microsoft in Redmond, Washington. "The size reflects the number of applications (in SR-1). There are multiple applications."

Forget uninstall

Another issue: Users who have tried to uninstall SR-1 can't do so because the Windows installer in Office 2000 incorporates SR-1 into the product. To uninstall SR-1, users must reinstall the original Office 2000.

Also, when installed from the Office Update Web site, SR-1 sometimes requests the SR-1 CD.

In this case, Gurry said, the Windows installer is attempting to ensure that Office 2000 is OK.

"It's a precaution to make sure your installation is really solid before you integrate additional updates into the product," she said. "The goal is to make it easier for users to install SR-1."

Overall, Gurry said, SR-1 has been "favourably received."

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